Final answer:
Elena bought 1/4 less than Noah's x pounds of apples, which is represented by the equation E = 3/4x, showing she bought three-fourths the amount Noah did.
Step-by-step explanation:
Noah bought x pounds of apples, and Elena bought 1/4 less than that. To represent this situation with an equation, we subtract a quarter of Noah's amount from his total to find the amount that Elena bought. This could be thought of as Elena buying 100% of Noah's amount minus 25%, which is the same as her buying 75% of Noah's amount. Since we are using x to represent the amount Noah bought, we can write the equation for the amount Elena bought as:
E = x - \(\frac{1}{4}\)x or E = \(\frac{3}{4}\)x
This equation shows that Elena bought three-fourths the amount of apples that Noah bought.